What's a Tank? The Noob's Guide to 5-Man Parties

WoW has terrific tutorials. A new player who has never heard of Azeroth can be up and running within minutes. The hint interface will show you the things you need to know, and you can solo your way to max level without ever speaking to another player. But then - what's the point of playing an MMO, if you're going to solo 100% of the time? Besides - the devs have put a lot of time and effort into those instances - surely you are curious about them...\r\rSo off you go - queueing for your first instance. But wait! Once you get inside, the four strangers run off at full tilt, then yell at you for being a noob. Sadly, not everyone we meet in a PUG (Pick-Up Group - random strangers thrown together for a task) will be helpful - or even civil. And when they do try to explain what you are doing that makes them unhappy, sometimes even the explanations make no sense...\r\rWell, here it is - your guide to 5-man parties! This guide will not teach you how to please everyone. With over 10 million players, WoW has too many people with too many different priorities for that to be possible (and, let's face it - in any group of 10 million, there are bound to be a few who just won't be happy no matter what you do). But it will teach you the basic language of 5-man parties, and give you an overview of the generally-accepted social rules for partying with strangers. \r\rAs with any 'generally accepted rules' there will be lots of exceptions and variants, and people who want to quibble. There is no universal rule of anything that 10 million people agree on. This, however, is as close as you get - and even some of the people who aren't following these guidelines will often agree with them ('cause after all, we don't all always do what we know we oughta, do we?). So in general, this info should help you be 'more right than wrong, more often than not' - or at least recognize when someone who is calling you a noob may have a point - and when they should be \/ignored. \r\rIt's also a good idea to read through everyone's job, not just your own. Even if you aren't a tank - knowing what the tank is trying to do will help you be a more supportive team member.\r\r\r\rSo...what's a tank, and why do I need one?\r\r\r\r\r\r\rA 5-man party generally consist of the following roles:\r\rOne tank (a moving target whose job is to make things mad and stand there while mad things beat them up)\r\rOne healer (a "Type A" overstressed psycho who constantly complains about people standing in things, ignoring kill order, and\/or running off. The healer's job is to keep you all alive. Mostly.)\r\rThree damage dealers (Also referred to as DPS or "everyone else." Their job is to kill stuff. The right stuff. At the right time)\r\rIn addition, any (or multiple) party member(s) may fulfill one or more of the following functions:\r\rA Party Leader\/Guide is the person whose job it is to try to keep everyone on the same page. This is a tough job in a group of people who know one another, and almost impossible in a group of strangers, so have a heart. \r\rCrowd Control is using the abilities of party members in order to take enemies out of the fight for a limited period of time, thereby allowing the party to deal with opponents in a more controlled fashion. From a shaman's Hex to a Warlock's Banish to a Mage's ability to freeze targets in place, these things control the mobs so that your team can focus their efforts. \r\rDamage breaks CC! If a mob is controlled, don't hit it, and don't do AoE (Area of effect) damage near it. This mob was removed from combat for a reason. Leave it out of combat until the tank decides (s)he's ready to tank it. If you find yourself in a jam, CCing a mob can often get you out of it. One exception here: if you have a fear of any type, put it away. In general, Fear has no place in a dungeon. Feared mobs go unexpected places - and often those unexpected places have more mobs. If you were trying to get one mob off you because it was too much, sending him off to invite 5 more just can't end well....\r\r\r\r\rAnyone can be a party leader! For practical reasons, it's usually the tank. When you use the queue system for dungeons, it may be random. But anyone can take on the extra work associated with being a Leader. If you want to wear the crown, you should generally:\r\rKnow the goal\r\rIt is your responsibility to know where the group is going and how to get there - or to ensure that someone else does and let them pick the path. You should also be aware if party members are along for a specific loot item, and make arrangements in advance - it is better to fight over loot in advance than mid-run.\r \rLearn the traps\r\rBefore any major fight, it is your responsibility to let the party know what to expect, and define the tactics the group will use to succeed. There is always more than one way. Be prepared to get everyone agreeing on a single option - and to change it if it's not working. \r \rHave a plan\r\rWell, OK, the two items above really add up to that. You need to know, based on the makeup of your current party, what it takes to achieve the goal - and have a plan in mind for how to do it. Then you have to communicate the plan to the rest of the party. Sometimes this means a strategy session at the beginning (for shorter goals). Sometimes it means an overall party strategy, with individual updates as specific fights approach (as in a long instance run).\r \rSelect and mark targets\r\rThis is not as simple as popping a raid icon on the mob's head. At the beginning of the run, you must let your party know what the kill order is ("First skull, then move on to X, then on to blue square"), what special icons will be used ("Orange circle is rogue's sap, crescent is sheep") - and remember it so that you mark correctly every time. \r \rAs you reach each fight, you must determine what order the fight needs to happen in (OK - there are two healers in the mobs. So one gets sheeped <crescent> and the other one has to go down immediately <skull>, then we move on to....). If you are PL and are not the main tank, establish a clear signal for when it is OK to attack ("when you see the skull go up, it is OK to move in and tank".)\r \rBe aware of everything\r\rYes, you're in the middle of a fight - but as Party Leader, it's your job to notice that approaching patrol and try to avoid it, or at least let everyone know it is coming and adapt the plan on the fly.\r \rKeep track of everyone\r\rAs a PL, it is not enough for you to know that you are OK and ready for the next fight - you must check on everyone before allowing the party to move. Are casters drinking? How is your healer's mana? Is your tank still bandaging? Is a player AFK? Having difficulties with his mouse? Has one of your group dropped back behind? It is your responsibility to make sure that the party does not move ahead without any of its members.\r \rKeep track of quest objectives\r\rAs Party Leader, it's up to you to know *everyone's* quest objectives, and to make sure they have the opportunity to achieve them. In addition to knowing which mobs have to die, or which chests have to be looted, this also means keeping an eagle eye on your rear guard with collection quests. Collection quest items are visible to those who have the quest, and folks in the back ranks often miss out because these items are looted by the front ranks before the rear guard can arrive. Whether you establish a rotation (difficult but doable), a precedence ("Bob will get all his, then Fred will get his..."), or some other solution, it is on you to ensure that when your group is done, Bob isn't done collecting his 30 items while Fred only has 2.\r \rHandle the issues\r\rIf you tell everyone 'no wandering off' and one party member constantly does so, it is your responsibility to speak privately to that player to let them know the rules again. You must be prepared to make the hard decision to eject a party member who is not working with the team. You must also bear the responsibility for handling such things with tact and diplomacy, giving players the chance to understand the rules and adapt their behavior before giving up and punting them. It also means that you are more responsible for following the rules than any other party member. If you tell everyone else 'no wandering off' and then you step ahead, without a word, to scout, what message are you sending? And in that scenario, remember that your party members should be following you - so if you step off to scout, counting on, for example rogue stealth to keep the mobs from noticing you - and all of your party members follow you - unanticipated events may follow.\r \rSet the rules. Follow the rules. Explain the rules. Enforce the rules. \r\rManage the group\r\rNot everyone gets along. Sometimes the art of Party Leader involves keeping the peace - or letting a player vent to you privately, and commiserating, so that they won't vent their frustrations on another player. Sometimes it means addressing an issue that you didn't see, and trying to manage disputes. Teams busy fighting each other don't successfully fight mobs. \r\r\r\r\r\rThere is one basic thing to keep in mind, and it is hard to stick to. Say this to yourself 1000 times prior to starting your tanking career:\r "I do not kill things, DPS kills things." \r\rYour job as the tank is to be a roadblock and to soak up enemy aggression. You do not try to kill the targets; you try to keep everything trying to kill you, period. Throw the mage and rogue a bone here, and let them kill the mob. You just make it your life to get insulted when the mob is facing anyone but you. Be the prom queen, and get jealous when anyone pays attention to anyone but you. It is all about you. \r\rMany of the following examples use warrior skill references. Each tanking class has its own tricks. This is about how to think like a tank - not a class guide - learn your class's tricks, and insert the appropriate equivalent here. Then go write a 'tanking for guide'!\r \rStarting the Fight ("Pulling"): \r\r- Pick the mob most likely to be a pain and pull them to the spot where the party wants to fight (usually right where the shammy has set up the totems, or the hunter has laid the traps. You know the spot).\r \r- Remember that in an instance aggression will not drop off. You can pull ANY distance. They will chase you all the way back to the entrance if you want. So pick a good spot and pull the mobs there.\r \rMake sure your party members know where the fight will take place - there's nothing more discouraging than running half a mile to lead that caster to the place you want - only to find that your party members engaged him the second you did - half a mile back, in the wrong place.\r \rWell, OK, there *is* something more discouraging - the next moment, when your party meets the additional dozen mobs that you were trying to pull that caster away from...\r\rThe Art of The Pull: \r \rThere are two basic ways to engage the enemy in an instance or group situation. The first is to attack the enemy where they are, the second is to draw them to a location you choose and fight them there (pulling).\r \rPulling, although a slower and more methodical approach, tends to be far safer and has a number of advantages over moving to engage. The biggest advantage is the fact that the enemy is further from their allies, and if they flee when wounded you have a much better chance of killing them before they get clear and bring the next stack down on you. The second big reason is that by pulling enemies you are less likely to aggro other enemies during the fight by moving too close to the next group. In short, controlling the fight lets you decide how many of the enemy to fight at once.\r \rSucceeding in combat is all about planning and controlling the situation. A good pull allows you to establish this control right from the beginning. \r\rThings to note about pulling: \r\r- It is important that you have one person in charge of pulling. One of the most dangerous situations in an instance is a double pull (where 2 party members pull 2 groups at the same time).\r- It's generally a good idea to let your tank pull so that they get the initial aggro instead of having to take it from someone else.\r - The raid icons (the skull, cross etc that the leader can use to mark enemies) are a great help in controlling the situation and making sure that all party members are attacking the right enemies.\r - Check your surroundings before pulling! Make sure you have no other groups of enemies close, hiding around a corner or such. A second or two to look before pulling can prevent a wipe.\r - Look at the spacing between enemies. Over time you will learn to gauge how close they need to be to each other to chain in (that's where you pull one group, and their buddies notice and come to help, even though they weren't invited).\r - Check your party before pulling! Don't start the fight while your casters are mana-ing up, party members are AFK, etc.\r \rThere are 2 main types of pull. They are referred to in may ways. We're going to call them "straight" and "LoS" (line of sight) pulls. \r\rStraight Pull \r\rVery simple: somebody shoots an enemy and they come attack. A variant of this is a Proximity Pull, where the tank simply moves up close enough to aggro and then backs up to where he wants to fight. Easy to perform, and works well in a situation where only melee attackers are present in the mob.\r \rLoS (Line Of Sight) Pull \r\rIn most cases, LoS pull is the only way to draw casters or archers in without closing to engage. More complex to perform, this one requires some teamwork\/communication and a bit of terrain. \r\r- The puller stands close to a corner or doorway, and then pulls. \r- As soon as the shot hits, the puller backs around the corner (important to move back far enough to draw the enemy all the way in).\r- The enemies will close in to get Line of Sight again so they can attack the puller. \r- If there is no sight barrier, you may have to run out of casting range a few times in order to drag them to the spot you want. This is a lot more work, especially in ensuring your party knows where you are running *to, but works if you don't have a convenient sight barrier to use.\r\rFor this pull to work it is important that no other party members attack until the enemy is where you want him. Other attacks will switch the enemy focus and may cause them to fight in a less desirable location. Party members should all stay around the corner or wherever it is the tank is pulling to - a party member standing out where the mob can see them may draw agg and blow the LoS pull. Everyone but the tank should stay out of sight until the fight is on.\r\rEstablishing Agg:\r\rOnce a creature in an instance develops aggression, he will stay aggressive, until acted upon by an outside force. (e.g. - your other party members nuking him into oblivion and distracting him from you.)\r \rClose\/pull to melee range and start trying to be aggravating. Be aggravating enough that the mob will stay with you no matter what. Warriors, sunder their armor - in addition to making them hate you, it makes them easier for your party members to kill. Paladins, since you have no thrown or distance weapons, you might want to consider engineering as a profession - bombs make a nice ranged pull....\r \rUsually, it is the tank who pulls targets - but not always. If someone else is pulling, have them pull mobs directly to you, then use your (or their! <3 you for your misdirection, hunters) talents to dump the agg onto - You! The Tank!\r \rKeeping Agg\r\rIf people hit what you are hitting, you should be able to hold aggression on your primary target, pretty much no matter what they do. If that is all they are hitting, they shouldn't agg any other targets. The way that should look is:\r - You run in and everything aggs on you because you are the only game in town at that point.\r - You lock down agg on one target. \r- Everyone else starts hitting that target. \r- You hold that target, and the other mobs are not being hit, so they stay on you.\r - Target one is killed (by the mage, rogue, warlock, etc. not you) and you lock down agg on target two.\r - Everyone else starts hitting target two. \r\rThis is of course the perfect world, and we know it won\u2019t always work out that way.\r \rIf some pushy mobs start peeling off and trying to smoke your healer and such you have to get a little medieval on their butts. Do NOT, however, let them get you running around like a headless troll trying to hold on to everyone. You simply cannot hold every mob in a big scrum - it\u2019s not happening.\r \rYou have to figure that everyone in your party is probably tough enough to fight one standard (non boss type) mob. I mean these guys do quest, and are probably pretty solid in a one on one situation. So if a couple of mobs peel off you, just hold as much as you can and let them go. A mob in the hand is worth two that you have to chase and may not catch. \r\rIf someone gets too much going on, they should run past you, trailing their horde of attackers like a parade so you see there is a problem. If they are really, really bright\/well-trained, they will stop running close to you so you can actually do something about it other than watch them run away from you.\r \rOn occasion, they may run in the opposite direction. If they choose to do this, what they are telling you is that they would prefer to deal with those mobs themselves. Do NOT run off after them, losing agg on the mobs you are already holding (and allowing it to transfer to your healer or clothies) in order to chase after their parade of mobs that you are not going to catch. Stay where you are, and keep tanking. Note that when this party member dies - far from you and far from the healer - they will blame you (and the healer). They will loudly trumpet your incompetence, and inability to hold agg. Nothing you say will convince them that if they had been hitting the correct target, they could have skipped the dirt nap. All you can do with that is - be sure to mark targets (so everyone knows which is the primary target), and be sure that you always have the primary target's attention. If those two things are true, you can confidently smile at the dead DPS.\r \rTaking agg:\r\rOK - so you have agg, you are playing with some mobs - but something happens. An effect interrupts their agg. A party member accidentally overnukes. Another party member runs past you with a small parade of baddies. You glance at the party icons and see someone's life going dangerously low and - since they are nearby - decide that you would like to pull the mob off them and give them a second to breathe. How, exactly, do you do that?\r \rIf you are a warrior, you might want to try sucking single targets in with a nice Taunt or Mocking Blow. In an emergency, you might try to Disarm them - but the long cooldown means you only want to use this when you really have to. If it doesn't totally work, at least they will no longer have a weapon to beat on your party members with... Once you have them, throw a few sunders on them to ensure you keep their attention.\r \rTo suck in a whole group of folks, try Challenging Shout. Be aware that once you use this, some of the mobs are going to drop off right away. that's because you didn't use it til the situation got desperate - and your DPSers will be blasting away at some of them. That mage was probably mid-cast when you sucked the agg off him, and won't be able to cancel his spell in time. But at least he is only dealing with one mob now....\r \rPaladins - if you can't think of anything bright to do to get a mob's attention, try healing the guy they are beating up. They will appreciate it, the mobs will be annoyed by it - and did you notice that your heals are Holy Spells? So with Righteous fury up.... If all else fails, toss your dying buddy a Blessing of Protection, making them immune to all damage for 10 seconds. Unlike players, mobs catch on to this immediately and refuse to waste time swinging at them. Now's your chance to get that disguted, annoyed mob's attention. With such a long cooldown, this should be considered a last-ditch option, but it's a terrific way to get an instance boss off your healer. Finally, you can use Hammer of Justice to stun a mob for a few seconds. With a one-minute cooldown, this is usually a once-per-fight option - and don't waste time trying it during boss fights - most bosses are immune to stuns.\r \rThe End of the Fight:\r\rAs the number of mobs drops down, your role shifts a tiny bit, from tank to crowd control. Hold that boss or other annoying mob while everyone takes out the minions - stack a few sunders on him so that when they are ready to take him on, he's all yours - and poorly armored.\r \rWhen the number of mobs is high (say, "more than one"), you'll have to work out a method of ping-ponging between them at a rate that keeps them properly interested in you, you, you. Target Mob A and smack, sunder, sunder, target Mob B, sunder, sunder, target Mob A, taunt as needed.... If your DPS is properly focused on the primary kill target, this is doable.\r \rIf your DPSers are each focusing on different targets and ignoring the posted kill order there is no way for you to successfully tank. Do what you can, stay on task, and if the place wipes you will at least know that you have done your part correctly. It *is* your job to hold aggro - but nobody can expect you to sustain agg when DPSers are overnuking secondary targets. They have agg management responsibilities, too, and if they aren't meeting them, you can't take that on yourself.\r\rThe main thing is to remember that if the mobs are facing you, things are OK. It doesn't matter if you aren't making progress on their life bars - as long as they are facing you, things are OK. You don\u2019t worry about killing them - you just keep them from killing everyone else. \r \r\r\r\r\rMany people will explain to you why being a tank, a party leader, etc., is the toughest job in a party.\r \rDon't you believe it.\r\rThe hardest job in all of WoW is to be a party healer. No exceptions, no maybes - this is the tough job. Why? Because we all come here to play the game - and a party healer's job is to resist the urge to play, and do just one thing, no matter how the rest of the game is going.\r \rThat's right, you spent all that time fighting mobs, finishing quests, working wonders to get to the level you are at - and now your job is to not do any of those things. Your job is to stand in the safest spot you can find and cast heals. Period. And it isn't as simple as it sounds. Everyone in their party has a job. If everyone is doing their job, all goes well. If not, things get rough. If the healer is not doing their job, the party wipes.\r \rThings to Think About When Healing in a Party \r\rWhere do I stand?\r\rAt the back, within heal range and line of sight of everyone in the party. \r\rAs the fight moves, this location may move. The problem with that is that during the fight, if you are doing your job, you probably won't see that. So - make a habit of checking out the fight location in advance. When the party leader asks if everyone is ready, don't hesitate to say "no." Look at the area, identify the places the fight could move, where line of sight (LoS) is going to be an issue, what the likely events are (for example, is it likely the mob will move left, and you are all the way on the right? That will take your main party members out of your heal range - change your position to one farther left so you can cover more of the likely battlefield), and find yourself a spot that accommodates the greatest number of them. If that spot isn't clear, plan on moving there a few seconds into the fight, once your tank has the mob's attention. If there are several potential ways you see the fight moving, pick several spots in advance and be ready to move to them as needed. Once the fight begins, there is little time for you to adapt and adjust - so have a plan in advance. \r \rWhere do I look?\r\rThe only time true visibility matters is if the fight moves\/shifts - the rest of the time you don't need to be able to see party members - just to reach them with spells. You only need to look at two things during a fight - your party-member display on the left side of your screen, and your chat window (unless your party is using voice - then cut that down to 'one thing'). You aren't fighting, you aren't evaluating the battlefield except in the most rudimentary way, and your only responsibility is to be aware of the health of party members.\r\rBe aware that you will be fighting for LoS with your ranged DPSers. Hunters, locks, mages all need LoS to do their jobs too. If you have to, stand right behind or on top of their toons - whatever you need to get a clear casting path. You do not need to be able to see - just cast - so standing right behind them and not being able to see anything but the mage's cloak for the entire battle is actually OK much of the time.\r \rThis is the hard part. You have been adventuring for a long time, and are used to paying attention to the fight "or else." Here, your job is to ignore the fight and refuse to participate in it. It's the hardest thing you will ever do in WoW. When you do it right, you will be the difference between success and failure. When you do it wrong, you will draw extra agg, get yourself killed and - by extension - probably get the entire rest of your party killed. Which leads us to the thing that makes this job the hardest.\r \rResisting the urge to "help."\r\rResist the urge to be a part of the fight. Stand still. Wait. Do your job. All of those things you want to do to assist look something like this, in a party:\r \r- The mob is almost down - I can cast one little instant direct damage spell and finish him faster than the tank can! He is prot specced, he doesn't do nearly as much damage, and he is nearly dead!\r \rOption 1: Heal the tank and let the DPSers do their job. The boss goes down, in a few seconds longer than it would have taken you.\r \rOption 2: Cast that Frost Shock, or whatever. Now in addition to heal agg, you have drawn agg for offensive damage. How much more can you possibly do to make everything hostile in the vicinity pay attention to you? When the new adds come for you, your tank is nearly dead, so he is not in a position to draw the agg off you. You used up your mana with the offensive spell (and those mobs you agg'ed are interrupting you anyway), so you can't heal him. And now the party healer is dead. The remaining, beaten down members of the party are left to face the mobs you agg'ed - without a healer or a tank. Very helpful.\r \rYour job is to stand in the back and cast heals, and let everyone else fight the mobs. When you do anything else, you put your party at risk. Whatever you think you are doing to be 'helpful' - your party is not expecting, it is not a part of your party leader's plan, and you are not helping. It is more likely that you are interfering with the party leader's plan and creating difficulties, putting your entire party at risk. Quit it.\r \r"But the party leader is incompetent." Fine - don't go in their parties any more. But while you are there, it is their party and you follow their plan. Just as you would expect them to do if they were in your party. If the party wipes, it's their fault - that's fine, as long as it isn't your fault.\r \rActually helping\r\rThe place that you can be most helpful is in giving yourself more time to cast the right heals. Shields, bubbles, and other forms of momentary invulnerability that give you time to regen mana, or cast a slower\/better heal spell can be the difference between saving a party member and failing to.\r \rMain tank and DPS rogue both near death? Well, let's see - my bubble keeps him from taking damage, but also prevents him from doing any damage - OK - so cast the instant bubble on your tank (he already has the agg, the mob will continue to pay attention to him for a few seconds while you do all this) and then heal the rogue. Then go back and heal the tank, who has lived long enough to wait for your second spell. Why the plate-wearer and not the leather-bound guy with 1\/4 the armor? Because by choosing that order, you have not interfered with anyone else's job. The DPSer is still DPSing, the tank is still tanking. If you had bubbled the rogue with a 'protection' that also prevents him from dealing damage - there is no melee DPS being done til it wears off - not just while you are casting, but until the spell effect fades. You have made the rogue totally ineffective for the entire duration of your spell.\r \rThere are different forms of these types of protective spells, with different effects and limitations. For example, a simple shield that doesn't prevent outgoing damage might have changed the choice in this scenario - you might have wanted to prevent the rogue from taking damage long enough to fully heal your tank first.\r \rSince these abilities usually have timers - often longer than the duration of a well-executed fight - you must choose when to use them. Learn your spells, think about how these sorts of situations might develop, and have a plan for how - and when - you can use them to effectively support a party fight. If you are a druid - how often can you cast your combat rez? Who is the most appropriate target? Should you try to root that mob? (Remember, that spell does damage, drawing extra agg on you, both from the offensive cast and from the mob who is getting increasingly ticked off at you, personally.) Think about it in advance - planning ahead is always more successful than guessing at it on the fly.\r \rManaging mana\r\rMana isn't endless - and sometimes the fights are. There is nothing you can do to make mana regen faster - but there are things you can do to make it go away more slowly or to apply it more effectively.\r \rPlan ahead! \r\rMany healer classes carry two full sets of gear - one for soloing and one for party and instance runs. Although this can be tough on the bag\/bank space, it is actually a very good idea. When you are alone, your concerns may tend to be for things like hit, armor value and stamina - having enough health and armor to stay upright in a fight and being able to hit the mob is always a big help. In a party, you should not be in melee, and if you are others should be taking those fights away from you - your armor value becomes less significant. Nobody is ducking your healing spells - so hit is pretty automatic. However heal, intellect, and spirit bonuses will increase the impact of your healing, the amount and regen of your mana. This is why you will sometimes see healers 'downgrade' gear - choosing cloth when they could wear leather or mail, for example - if the non-armor stats boost their healing more.\r\rDid I Mention - Plan ahead!\r\rDrink, every chance you get. Go into every battle with full mana. Carry more water than you think you need, potions, reagents. Yes, they use up bag space - but this is self-correcting. Those slots will empty out as the run goes on. Having them empty when you need them stocked is far wore than destroying 1g worth of water if you really, really need a bag slot.\r \rYour best heals aren't always your best option\r\rSure it brings back half the tank's health. It also takes 3 seconds to cast and costs 2.5x as much mana as the cheap, 1.5 second heal that brings back half that amount. By casting the little heal twice, you heal faster, using less mana. Understand what your spells cost, how long they take to cast, and where you are going to get your best result.\r \rDoes the tank really need to be at full? Or could you cast the small one, bring him back to 75% and then quickly cast a second small one on the rogue, bringing him back to full and leaving you time to cast a larger heal on the tank afterward if needed? In the former scenario, the tank stays up, the DPSer dies - and the boss may outlive the tank. In the latter, the tank stays up, the DPSer stays in business, and you have time to attend to the tank while someone is doing enough damage to the boss to actually take him down. You have also used less mana, leaving more to handle the rest of the fight.\r \rThat brings us to a difficult question: who do I heal first? \r\rHeal Priority\r\rYour party leader may have specific instructions for you on this, based on the nature of the fight. For example, if the only way to truly damage the boss is fire, your party leader may instruct you to keep the fire mage up at all costs. In the absence of a special situation or instruction, the following is a reasonable place to start:\r \rThe tank must live\r\rThe tank's job is to keep agg. He gets the mob's attention, and spends the entire fight yelling "no, no, look at ME!" When it works well, this keeps bosses from beating clothies and healers to death - including and especially you. If the tank can do this job successfully, others can die, walk back from the graveyard and rejoin the fight in the interim. Your main tank is your first priority.\r \rOff-tanks and close in fighters \r\rMelee fighters have less latitude to heal or bandage themselves in a fight. A mage can skip one round to bandage himself if needed. A rogue who stops mid-fight to put on a band-aid will often find himself flattened before his band-aid is flattened to his skin. When your tank is doing fine, help out those who cannot stop to help themselves. (Off-tanks are a sort of assistant tank usually found in raids. We include them here so they don't feel left out - and you know how to transfer this info if you should decide to start learning to raid)\r \rRanged fighters \r\rThese guys have the best ability to 'step back for a second' if needed - but they will still need your help. Many of them are clothies, and one good hit hurts them a lot. Many of them also have tricks (like life-stealing effects) to add back to their health. When you adventure with them all the time, you will learn their habits and thresholds. When you don't know them well, you have to do the best you can. In general, the big expensive heal spells tend to heal more health than many of them have - try casting your little one to keep them standing, and evaluating (a) how much of their health this restores and (b) what they do next - you may find that unless that lock gets below 50% he is in the habit of taking care of himself and casting on him is a waste of mana. Or not. If you don't understand his ability or how he is healing himself (and at what cost!), ask. Once you understand the ability and how he prefers to use it, you may find there are ways you can help him that are more effective for both of you. \r \rPets and minions \r\rMany healers ignore pets and minions. This is a critical mistake. Yes, the hunter can mend his pet, the lock can summon a new one - but the presence of these creatures is a key part of those classes' success. The lock chose that succubus because her seduction was useful to the fight, or that imp because he adds needed firepower. When they go away, not only is the balance of the fight affected, the effectiveness of that player is too. Don't think so? Watch a hunter who is forced into melee by the death of his pet.... Have a look at a party of mostly mages and locks, where the lock's demon is serving as party tank... If you have to choose between players and pets, by all means choose the player. But until you reach that point of 'having to', be sure to evaluate what the pet is doing to help the fight, and place it in your heal order appropriately. A fel tank is still a tank.\r \rTime is of the essence\r\rWe talked about heal cast times, mana regen times - but what about the time it takes you to move? Not 'move your toon to a better spot for LoS' - the amount of time it takes you to target, click your mouse, cast spells.... With very few exceptions, effective party healers are not 'mouse people.' The description that follows is the author's interface setup. Perhaps there are variations that work better for you - but pay attention to the logic of this method, and determine how to best apply it to yourself and your gameplay\/style. (Note: this info does not apply to raids. As a raid healer, I use a mouse interface - but it's designed especially for raid heals and makes it more efficient. The following assumes you are healing 5-mans, and not using special healer add-ons but working from the native WoW interface).\r \rMy action bars are set up with combat spells on the left, heals on the right. Why? Two reasons. First, when soloing, this allows me to move using my arrow keys (right hand) without ever taking my hands off the combat spells. In a fight, this means that I can change direction, move into LoS, or buy time as needed with movement while spells cool down. Second, in a party, I can use the F keys to target my party members, without ever taking my right hand off the heal spells.\r \rOn the party member display on the left side of your screen, you will always be listed at the top, with your party leader second. Other toons display in a preset order. While the author has not determined exactly what that is, the thing I can confirm is that the same 'other three people' will always display in the same order. So, you are at the top, PL is next - and Bob, Joe and Fred will always display in the same order beneath. If you drop Bob from the party, Joe moves up to spot #3 - but if you invite Bob back, he will go back into spot #3, and Joe moves back down to #4.\r \rYour function keys can be used to target each of the party spots: \r = You \r = Party Leader \r = Spot #3 (Bob) \r = Spot #4 (Joe) \r = Spot #5 (Fred) \rIf Joe is a hunter with a pet, hitting will toggle you between him and his pet. So, targets Joe, and , target's Joe's pet.\r \rMouse clicking takes precious seconds. That extra second can be the difference between your heal finishing - and Bob dying before you can finish the cast. Keyboard targeting is essential to timely healing. Keybinding heal spells instead of mouse-clicking has the same sort of impact.\r \rTime it out once: ", " vs. "move mouse to Joe's portrait, click, move mouse to heal spell, click." You could have cast two or even three heals in that amount of time. (Be sure to notice that , combination - targeting with the left hand, healing with the right. If my heal spell is keybound to the key, I have to target, take my fingers off the keys and move them to the number keys, then hit . By putting the heals on the right, I eliminate that delay, and minimize the possibility of hitting the wrong key - my cast sequence is two keystrokes with fingers already on the right keys.)\r \rYou are responsible for your own agg\r\rThere will be (rare) occasions where you walk into an instance, and the act of casting a heal will transport you instantly to the top of every active mob's hate list. The other 95% of the time, you need to try to keep that from happening.\r \rIf a mob runs for you, you run for the tank - and then you figure out why they ran for you in the first place. Rough fight? Did you have to cast several big heals on the tank to keep him up? Try to think about your exact cast sequence. Yes, it is everybody else's job to keep you alive - but it's your job to make that task as reasonable as possible. This consists of two primary tasks:\r- Managing your heals so you don't draw any more attention than is necessary \r- Not doing anything else that might draw attention. \r\rIf you aren't doing these two things, and a mob flattens you, don't be too quick to blame the lack of healer protection. No, wait, scratch that. There is no "if" - you will be doing these two things.\r\rSometimes, you just have to let them die\r\rSuccess in a 5-man requires everyone to be doing their job. One person not doing their job affects everyone. You cannot save a DPSer who constantly overnukes and ignores kill order. You cannot save a tank who just does not have enough armor\/health for the fight you are in. These things happen. Did you see the description of healers in the overview of party roles? Serious healers tend to worry a lot more than is good for them, and blame themselves for every death. In time, you will learn to recognize when a death is not your fault. As a general rule - always look back over the fight and see if you could have done better. If the answer is no - ignore the person shouting at you. They'll be shouting at a different healer tomorrow....\r \rWhat about the other stuff?\r\rYou know the other stuff - the mob that aggs you because of the healing spell, the caster or archer that keeps interrupting you. This is another thing to plan for in advance. For parties you travel with often, develop a shorthand. For parties with unfamiliar players in them, discuss this shorthand in advance so they know what it means.\r \rFor example, the author never says "healer agg" or 'mob x has me' or 'can someone help me?' If I am getting smacked, I say one of four things. My 'regular' party members know (and new ones are quickly educated) that:\r ** "Ouch" = "something is hitting me, and it's not too bad, but if one of you is free, could you please change focus and get him off me?"\r ** "Help" = "OK, this is bad and one of you needs to stop what you are doing NOW and come help me!"\r ** "HELP" = "quit screwing around - do it now or you do not have a healer any more dang it!!!!"\r ** "get <caster\/hunter\/whatever>" = "there is a distance person shooting your healer who is interrupting spells and keeping me from healing you. Someone please go get in his way."\r \r"agg" is nice - and fewer letters - but does not give my party a way to prioritize. That little bit of shorthand tells them whether they have time to finish up what they are doing or whether they need to do it NOW in order to keep their healer up. Notice that the only things I commented on were direct attacks on me. If I see that a hunter is shooting the tank, and the combination is about to take him down faster than I can heal him I say - nothing. That sort of thing is the party leader's job, and I stay out of it and let him do it. As a result, the entire party knows that if I open my mouth, their healer is under attack - there is no confusion about what that means. Sometimes, good communication is as much about what you don't say as what you do....\r \r______________________________________________________________________________________\r \rEarlier, I commented that 'not fighting', 'not playing the game' as you are used to is the hardest part of this job. That's true - and the second hardest part, as is true in many places in the game, is the commentary of ignorant people.\r \rYou will run into people who do not understand why you are 'just standing there' when the fight is on. Some of the comments about not 'earning' your way or not 'contributing to the kill' can be a little demoralizing. Trust that these are ignorant players who do not see the whole picture - a trait which will make them much less successful than you and the rest of the party.\r \rBe competent and focused, and if the failures come, others will clearly see that it isn't your fault - and the successes will be clearly seen as things that could not have happened without you.\r\r\r\r\r\rThe vast majority of toons in Wow are Damage Dealers. As a DPSer, you have a few basic functions:\r\rFollow the kill order.\r\rThe tank makes mobs mad. Other people hitting the mobs makes them mad. The tank can only focus on one mob at a time, and can only distract a few more than that. This means that the massive amounts of damage (which will annoy mobs and draw their attention) must be done to the mob that the tank is focusing on. Hit the mob the tank is tanking. Any other mob you hit falls under the time-honored rule of 'you yank it, you tank it.' When it kills you, it's your own fault. \r\rWatch your feet\r\rThere are two things you should be aware of about your feet. First, know where your feet ought to be. In general, your place is behind a mob, if you are melee, and far away from a mob, if you are ranged. Meleers, when you are solo, you are often face to face with mobs. In a party, that spot belongs to the tank. Many instance mobs have frontal attacks designed to take out the unwary - that would be you, if you are in front of the mob when you should be behind it. Ranged DPSers - soloing in the wilds of Azeroth often brings you close to danger. When you are in a party, you should be far from danger - as close to max cast range as is practical, in fact. The farther a mob has to come to bop you on the head, the more time the tank has to reclaim it, if needed, without letting it reach you.\r\rThe second thing you need to know about your feet is what they are standing in. While there are a few exceptions (you'll learn them in time), the 99% rule is "if it wasn't there before the fight started, you shouldn't be standing in it."\r\rIf you don't want to tank it, don't insist\r\rIf you don't want to tank elite mobs in dungeons, there are two things you can do to achieve that. First, follow the kill order - bash the things the tank is already holding. At the start of a fight, give your tank a few seconds to build up a relationship with the mob - and he will be so high on the mob's hate list, that little you do will interfere with their relationship. If you should manage it, it's a lot easier for a tank to get a mob's attention back, than to start fresh with a new mob. So - hit the mob that already hates your tank, and don't invite new ones. The tank gets bored easily - if he starts running out of mobs, he will find more. Give him a minute.\r\rSecond, if you should inadvertently make new friends - quit annoying them, and run to where your tank is. In order to be annoying, the tank needs to be near them - make it easy on him. In order to be more annoying than you, the tank needs you to quit being annoying. So quit it. \r\rShort version: don't beat on mobs that you don't want beating on you. Beat on mobs that are beating on your tank. This works best, and leaves party members all... alive, and stuff...\r\rHow can you be sure you are hitting the right mob? Here's an easy trick. Once your tank has had a few seconds to establish agg, target him or her (you can do this quickly using the F keys - check out the notes at the bottom of the healer tab for more info). Then hit 'f' - if you haven't changed your key bindings, this is the 'assist' or 'target of target' key. If you target the tank, then hit F - you are now targeting the mob the tank is targeting. Most of the time (assuming the tank isn't in the midst of picking up someone's trash), this is the target you should be hitting. If your party leader is on top of it, this mob usually has a big skull on his head, which is also a helpful indicator....\r\r(If you have reassigned this key - target your tank and look at his portrait at the top of your screen - the portrait below it is mob he is targeting.)\r\rManage Your Agg!!\r\rDidja notice the capitalization and exclamation points? This is the most important rule. You are a DPSer. You are, by nature, destructive. Being destroyed annoys mobs. it is not the tank's job to hold all agg on all mobs. It is the tank's job to hold all agg on one mob, and much agg on some (specified, pre-selected) other mobs. It's your job to make sure that you:\r- Are destroying the correct mob - the one that the tank has all agg on.\r- Are not attracting undue attention to yourself by blasting away at other mobs that the tank has no control over.\r- Are keeping an eye on the mob you are blasting. If your threat starts to rise too high - back off for a minute. \r\rWhen you are doing so much damage that the tank can't keep the attention of his primary target, this is called overnuking. Many DPSers assume that this indicates a tank is unable to hold agg properly. High-quality DPS recognize that an appropriately-geared and well-played tank simply can't continually be more impressive than the burst damage of a DPSer's well-planned spell rotation. Sometimes, good DPS is just too darned good. If the tank can't hold agg - maybe he is under-geared and incompetent. Maybe not. Does it really matter? The bottom line is, if all 5 of you are to succeed, you need to be doing as much DPS as possible within the capabilities of your team. You can blow the top off your DPS meter while getting the entire party killed, or you can manage your damage so that you are not pulling agg off the tank, and your entire party can succeed, the mob dies - and your DPS meter doesn't look as impressive. At the end of the run - the goal was to get to the end of the run, and nobody but you has the slightest interest in your DPS meter if they are all dead and their run fails.\r\rThe easiest way to determine if you are overnuking is to watch the mob. If you are taking aggro on the main target on a regular basis, try to even out your DPS a bit -- big abilities back to back put big spikes in your damage curve, and tend to lead to overnuking. If you are having issues with drawing agg, talk to your tank about it and see if there is anything you can do to work it out -- a quick discussion can, in many cases put you both on the same page and make sure you are working as a team. It's also a great idea to make sure everyone knows if you are planning to use AoE in a fight -- it can be a great asset if everyone is ready for it, or can lead to wipes if you don't communicate. DPS -- if you are taking aggro on a consistent basis, it is in most cases not your tank's fault.\r\rYour job in a 5-man is to contribute to the entire group's success - and sometimes that means backing off, letting the tank build back some agg, and then nuking the boss down, rather than blasting away at the top of your abilities with no regard for the capabilities\/status of your team. If you don't manage your agg, and the party wipes, have no doubt that this is as much your fault as the tank's (or more!), no matter whose gear or competence is in question. \r\r\r\r\r\r\r"I promise to be on my best behavior - if only someone will tell me how best to behave..."\r\r\r\r\r\r\rStay with your party. When you wander afield you increase the agg radius - and the danger to your fellow party members. If you are too far away to get a heal, you are in the wrong place. If you are further forward than the party leader for any reason except "the PL told me to go there," you are in the wrong place. \r \rCome prepared. Bandages, spell components, food and water, potions if available, quest items.\r \rBe courteous to your teammates. \r\rCurb your pets\r- Make sure combat pets are in a non-aggressive mode. in a dungeon, your pet should not engage any target that you don't specify. Tanks do not appreciate your pet pulling extra mobs for them. \r- Non-combat pets should be put back in their crates - dungeon fights can get visually complex. Don't add distractions and visual clutter.\r\rListen to your PL while in combat. The time to discuss and change the plan is out of combat. Once you pick a leader, let them lead. If you think they are doing it wrong - you can ask to be leader next time. But while they are leader - they lead, you follow.\r\rFollow the kill order. Hit the target the tank is focusing on.\r \rIf you are going into an instance, discuss loot rules *before* you begin. Very important if you have people along you don't know.\r \rAppropriately address others' behavior if you feel they are not being courteous or endangering the party. Whisper your Party Leader if you see something not right going on and ask them to address it. If your party leader is on the ball, they should be able to take care of it - if they are not already doing so.\r \rTell your party if you are going AFK -- if they start a fight thinking you are there and you are not, it could get ugly.\r \rMention patrols aggroing or other adds as soon as you see them. Your team may not all know they are there.\r \rAsk questions if you think there might be a better way of doing something. Keep it non-judgmental and find out why its being done in a particular way - you might be able to improve the party by asking.\r \rThank everyone for coming no matter how well the run went. \r\rShare Quests! If you have quests that cannot be shared (such as chains or class-specific quests), let your party leader know your quest objective. If he doesn't know that you have the quest to kill Bob the Magnificent, he may skip Bob, thinking he is a waste of time.\r \rTell your party leader your loot goals. This ensures that the party leader doesn't skip Bob (who has the bracers you want), because nobody has the quest to kill him. In addition, it will allow you and the other player who wants Bob's Bracers to come to accord in advance.\r\rIf you are the Party Leader\r\rDiscuss kill order in advance. Raid icons are great for this (e.g. "skull first, then cross, orange dot for sheep"). \r \rCheck your party's health\/mana before starting a fight (especially your healer!) After a big fight look and see how everyone is doing. Going off before people are ready is a major cause of wipes. (This advice is mainly for Party Leaders, since everyone else should be engaging targets only when instructed by the PL!)\r\rTask somebody (hunters and DPS casters excel at this) to kill runners. Once low on HP, many enemies will try to flee, so having someone whose job it is to finish them keeps them from getting away and bringing friends.\r \r\r\r\r\rState the obvious -- e.g. "Heals please." It's obnoxious. \r\rBlame. When you join a team, success and failure are accomplished as a team. If you do get killed, don't blame your party members. Nobody likes a whiner. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with asking what happened if you are not sure where things went sideways.\r\rBe afraid to leave a group full of obnoxious people. If you try to enforce some level of courtesy and can't, its probably not worth your time to be there. (Just my opinion, but - it's a game. We're here to have fun.)\r \rPull if you are not the designated puller. \r\rRun add-ons that will impact performance for others. Many people don't realize, for example, that most 'gear score' add-ons constantly poll everyone nearby for gear data - while you may not notice, someone with a lower-end machine who is getting flooded by these requests from four other party members may experience lag from the constant query requests - in addition to making the run frustrating for them, their lag may negatively impact your group's success.\r\r"Just guess" if you don't know what you should be doing. Ask.\r \rDid I mention don't be obnoxious? If you can't be polite or are not in a mood to hang with people, go solo.\r \rFeel like you must flag for PvP if your party mates do it (on a non-PvP realm). Note that any helpful spell on your allies (including heals on a flagged person) will flag you for PvP as well. It is perfectly OK to ask party members to unflag so that helping them doesn't flag you. At the very least, let your party members know that you don't care to flag, so they know not to expect your help.\r \rRun off! Maybe there isn't any problem with it. Maybe there aren't any mobs there. Maybe you are just checking out something interesting. But your Party Leader can hardly be expected to psychically know all these things - all he knows is his party member just ran off, split the party, and might be bringing back who-knows-what adds. A party is a group that is working together - and together is the place to be, unless you are specifically sent somewhere else.\r\r\r\r\r\r\rYou may have noticed that this is a long guide. Or, if you have been playing a while, you may have noticed that it could easily have been twice this long. There is always more to learn, and there are always more ways to do it. This, however, should give you enough information to figure out what all those crazy people are up to - and how to become one of them. ;) People who have been playing for a long time sometimes forget that they were not born knowing this stuff. They forget to tell it to you - and then get cranky with you for not being aware of it. Hopefully, this guide will help bridge that gap. Maybe it will help you fix something you didn't even know you were doing wrong. Or maybe it will help you to understand that you were doing just fine, and shouldn't take someone's crankiness to heart. Whichever may be true (usually both!), I hope the info helps you to make the leap from solo to group adventuring more smoothly, so you can enjoy places in WoW that even a bold adventurer simply dare not travel alone!\r\rLok'tar!\r\rGrateful Acknowledgements\r\rMany thanks to Ratsy, my favorite tank, and a certain rogue whose name shall remain stealthed (and who taught Rats and me a lot of what you just read, way back when Healycow was a teeny li'l heifer...) And of course, <3 my guildies and raid buddies. It would all be just theory, if it weren't for the people who place their Azerothian lives in my hooves....

Kommentare

Kommentar von TheDrWhat

Amazing guide! Great job and thank you for the awesome help for the newcomers. :)

Edit: spelling.

Kommentar von darkdoug19

Not a bad guide, there is a lot of decent information here, but also a lot that is completely wrong.

Party Roles - Crowd Control - Mage Ice Blocks only protect themselves, this isn't CC, you mention sheep later, so I'm assuming this is just a mistake.

Under tanking you say, "Paladins, since you have no thrown or distance weapons." Which is completely wrong. I know you said this isn't a class guide, but Schild des Rächers is what should be used for pulling.

You also don't make any mention of the different abilities each class has for AE (area effect, multiple mobs) tanking vs Single target. Warriors have Donnerknall, Paladins have Weihe and Hammer der Rechtschaffenen, Deathknights have and , Druids have . Those are just the base abilities, each class has more ways to deal with packs of mobs. The abilities used on packs are different than the ones used on single targets.

Some of the things you say for Healers is completely wrong, and some of it is just insulting. Healers should always be paying attention to the game, always aware of their surroundings, and in most circumstances should stay in one spot, but must be able to move if necessary. A good healer knows when a dps is standing in fire, or is about to get hit with something and will queue up a heal before it hits. A good healer will never stand in fire, or get cleaved by mobs. A great healer will know when to use their own CC or interrupts. Often interrupting a big spell is far better than trying to heal the damage it just did. Also, dispels can be more important than heals at times.

Also, a Priest with should be doing damage during times of low healing. Paladins should be judging for . Saying you should just stand there and do nothing but heal is just plain wrong.

But, like I said at the beginning, most of the information is useful. At the very least it's a good read for those that are completely new to WoW.

Also, something I was told when I started, and it almost always applies:

If the Tank dies it's the Healer's fault, if the Healer dies it's the Tank's fault, if the DPS dies it's their own fault.

Kommentar von sum12321

I disagree with several points you made in this guide. The first is that you should always adjust for the convenience of the dps. The only person you really care about is the healer as he is the only person(in a heroic) that matters other than the tank. Second, is that it is the dps's fault that you lost aggro. Tanks have so many aggro modifiers that if you lose aggro, then you are doing something wrong(assuming there are no fight mechanics causing the loss of aggro.) Third is that healing is the toughest job in a dungeon. The only time that is true is when you have the worst tank in the universe who doesn't even know what aggro is. The tank must be watching for anything that may disrupt the flow of the battle such as a patrol or an attack which he must ready a cooldown to avoid dying. Forth is that a healers only focus is on text and on the health bars of the party. If a mob drops an acid cloud right on top of you, you will likely die before you realize what has happened. Also you must be prepared to interrupt an attack if possible because it will often cost less mana to do so instead of healing whatever damage is caused by the cast. Fifth is that healers should never do damage. All classes except druids gain some form of benefit from attacking an enemy. Priests have a talent called atonement which causes holy smite and holy fire to heal for an amount equal to the damage done. Shaman have a talent called Telluric Currents which grants them mana equal to 40% of the damage done. Paladins have Seal of Insight which grants mana and health every time they attack with their weapon. They also have Judgment of the pure which causes them to get a haste buff when they use their judgement attack.

Kommentar von thenixie

A friendly message to all potential posters and commenters :

When you have done this for a long time, and know all the ins and outs, it can be very tough to remember that not everyone was born knowing THE BASICS - both when partying with someone who has never heard them, and when reading/commenting on a post designed to help them. :)

Seems like much of the feedback here comes from folks who want to debate how all of the advice above is just plain wrong because when you are chain-queueing heroics, all of this stuff will lead you astray. To those folks - try to remember that this guide wasn't written for you. :)

This guide is for the person who has been soloing all their lives and has never been in a five-man. Someone who has never heard of a tank and has no idea what one's job is. In game, sadly this person often queues for a dungeon, doesn't know the basics of how not to interfere with the party - and rather than anyone explaining, the poor bloke gets votekicked and told to "L2P" (at best). Whether it's demographics or psychology, the fact is, many wow players, rather than being supportive, can be huge jerks when discovering someone wasn't just born knowing things that they have long since forgotten they had to learn/have explained to them. This guide isn't for those people - it's for the people they yell at, demean, and insult. It's for players who go into a dungeon once in their lives, and get treated so badly for not being born with the info above genetically encoded that they decide, as a result, to just never group again, and are cheated of the chance to enjoy a huge part of the game content they pay for.

There are more of them than you think. :(

This guide, is designed to help those players learn enough to not put them in the line of that kind of abuse. Once they have that - they may actually come back - and the more they come back, the more of those complexities they will encounter, and the more of them they will learn. You didn't learn them all in one day either, no matter how it may seem looking back.

If you'd like to debate advanced healing, raid dynamics, etc. - there are places for that. If you want to review here - I welcome your comments, and ask that you consider them in the context of this guide's purpose. Ask yourself, with each comment, whether it applies to a person in their first party ever, running Wailing Caverns. :)

Nothing is going to drop acid clouds on you in Wailing Caverns. Someone who has never healed a dungeon before needs to learn how to manage other peoples' health bars as their first priority, rather than 'killing the mob' as their first priority. Once they have figured out how to keep four other people alive - they can move on to figuring out how to be more helpful than that in the right situation. Until they have figured out the first, they don't have another priority.

While I try to read the feedback to anything I post so that I can correct/update as needed, I won't be responding individually to these types of posts any more (and have removed my earlier replies). The bottom line is "if you are talking about a mechanic more advanced than anything that appears in WC, if you are talking about something more complex than a FIRST-TIMER needs to know, my answer is: please go back and read the purpose of this guide (it's right there at the top of this page), as you are commenting on... something else."

And to those noobs whose guide this is - There's always more to learn. You didn't come here to become an expert - you came here to get a foundation. Don't let all the added stuff (or the players who want to pile it on you on your first day of kindergarten) intimidate or confuse you. Get your basics down, and when you have that you'll be able to learn the rest one lesson at a time, as you and your skill set are ready for them. For today - just getting through Wailiing Caverns without pulling mobs the tank wasn't ready for, or keeping four strangers alive (tanks AND healers!) is enough. (and if you understood the debate going on in some of the posts above, noob - congratulations! You have begun to make sense of the strange language of parties - your time here has already yielded you new knowledge and good results! ;) )

Lok'tar!

Kommentar von ligerpfish

Great guide! These are the kinds of things that usually take too long to explain to WOW newcomers while in-game, and the things that are painful to learn yourself by making mistakes while in a group. I would recommend this guide for anyone fairly new to WOW who doesn't have an experienced friend or guild to help them learn their way around instances. And actually, I would recommend this guide to those who have played WOW for years as well! I see way too many cocky DPSers overnuking in groups, and yet they keep doing it. Makes it difficult on the tank and healer, so I would agree with the author in that it's best to back down your own DPS and do the group a favor.

Kommentar von noobisafroob

if youre gonna add this, some recomedations:Recount/Skada - damage meters, hey check how much DPS overall damage, healing, HPS , damage taken etcetera.Deadly Boss Mods - for some bosses this shows you when to move from stuff on the ground.Healium - gives you a nice view of party members HP, along with some nice buttons you can click on this is only good for people who prefer mouse tho

oooh and for that healing part, i am a mouse healer, using the Healium addon, and i got a nice overview of all the party members, HoTs/shields ect. and without having to target himalso dont need to click skills on bar, since they are always on the right place where you put them.i can also keyheal, but i prefer having my dps spells on my keybinds, than my heals.

and i also recomend that you add that mouse moving is good to, makes sharper turns, easyer to quickly look behind you etcetera

Kommentar von Hordemangilley

Thank you for the information!

As a lvl 15 noob this gives me incentive to try out a dungeon instance.

Kommentar von MrSCH

Who's the tank

Kommentar von wildcoyote13

Really wished I read this guide when I started dging. A level 60 dwarf hunter who has never set foot into a dungeon until she found herself in the demonic Outlands. Ouch. You can imagine tank always yelling at me because I didn't know how to turn off pet's growl, not to mention my poor baby was tenacity, healers hissing at me to watch my pet's health and other fellow dpsers laughing at my damage. Luckily I was taken under my guild's wing and My kitty, Cerea, and I are now a force not to be taken lightly when it comes to dgs. Thank you for making this wonderful and informational guide.

Kommentar von Stuphid

Nice guide! Kudo's.

How about adding some of REALLY basic stuff, like using keybinds instead of clicking...Using your mouse to move around instead of keyboard turning and don't Tank with with your back turned to mobs?

It might turn out to be a long read, but IMO it's what makes the difference between a Tank that's 'ok' and one that get's invited back. ;)

Kommentar von Directme

I sure wish I'd known about this guide 3 yrs ago when I first started playing. I was in my first dungeon and called names. Made me feel so inferior. Now I try to help others, but i type too slow for the "running" tank.

Kommentar von Galdash

thenixie.

That's indeed a great guide! If you don't mind, I would like to translate/adapt your guide to portuguese, so the new players from Brazil can have such a great and welcome info on their hands. I'll keep the credits and all and hopefully it will stick too. :)

Thanks for the outstanding work on it!

Kommentar von Isgebind

It's an excellent guide, but it still needs some work in terms of typos (and I do apologize, normally I would list them, but I read it right before going to bed--I'll try to come back and find them for you), since there are quite a few of them. I loved the humor, especially about bored tanks. I wish I had had this guide (especially a note about warriors needing to be Protection and having sword and board when I was an Arms warrior trying to tank WC back in the BC days). I'll be linking this to my newbie friends when they get on WoW!

Kommentar von Jimbofult

Nice job - Thank you for taking the time to explain some of the fundamentals. Thank you, also, for reminding me that I am not the only one that jerks scream at in dungeons.

Kommentar von ezedu

Amazing guide, full of useful tips.Like a lot of ppl I'm sorry I found it so many years after I've started playing.Reading it made me realize how much I wanted to play the game again!Thanks!

Kommentar von Ashenmoon

Excellent guide!

I've returned to WoW after a couple years and I found this a great refresher for the do's and don't's in dungeons. I tended to avoid instances following the implementation of LFG, because I got fed up with the often not-too-constructive-criticism I had to suffer as a tank, never really knowing whether it was all justified or not.

I'm about to hit 90 with my DK and this has given me incentive to try my hand at dungeons again, so thanks <3.

Kommentar von Yorfriend

Nice guide to those newbie.I think every new players should see this before playing wow.

Kommentar von free2bmenow

Thank you very much. Well written and highly understandable. I have only been playing since MOP, leveled without dungeons for many of the reasons stated in comments.

My best take away from the guide was with regards to healing - your actual key setup with combat spells on left hand, heal spells on right hand along with the reasons for such decisions. Movement keys on the right hand arrow keys and using F keys to target party members.